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Congratulations to the Division of Pediatric Surgery’s Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., and Colin Martin, M.D., who were recently awarded grants from the Kaul Pediatric Research Institute.

Dr. Vera Hauptfeld was recently elected to serve on the Accreditation Review Board of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.The Division of Transplantation’s Vera Hauptfeld-Dolejsek, Ph.D., associate professor of surgery and director of the Comprehensive Transplant Institute's Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory, was recently elected to serve on the Accreditation Review Board of the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics as a commissioner for a two-year term.

The UAB Department of Surgery takes a break from the 12th Annual Academic Surgical Congress at Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas on Feb. 7, 2017.

More than 60 medical students, residents and faculty members represented the UAB Department of Surgery last week at the 12th Annual Academic Surgical Congress in Las Vegas. Second only to the University of Michigan, the department led the pack in presentations and moderated more than eight sessions.

After her fellowship at UAB roughly 12 years ago, Dr. Sara J. Pereira has returned to the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery as an associate professor.

In an effort to promote its brand and keep its faculty and staff looking sharp, the Department of Surgery is offering a number of specialty items for purchase, including shirts, shorts, sweatshirts and more. Order your UAB Surgery swag by submitting this online order form.

Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., M.E.H.P., will join the Division of Surgical Oncology as an assistant professor of surgery in August 2017. Photo via aamc.org.

The Division of Surgical Oncology is happy to announce that Brenessa Lindeman, M.D., M.E.H.P., will be joining the faculty as an assistant professor of surgery in August 2017 after being heavily recruited by many top-tier institutions. Lindeman will also serve as the associate director of the General Surgery Residency Program and the associate designated institutional official for UAB Graduate Medical Education.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Residency Review Committee for Surgery has renewed accreditation for four UAB Department of Surgery programs:

Dr. Marshall Urist weighs in on lymph node dissection during a panel for the UAB General Surgery CME Course.

Department Chair Herbert Chen, M.D., delivered his annual State of the UAB Department of Surgery address in Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium last Tuesday, declaring at one point, "There are a lot of comparisons you can make between Jedi knights and surgeons, I believe."

Kimberly Hendershot, M.D., attended the Association of American Medical College’s Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development seminar in Austin, Texas, Dec. 10-13, 2016.The Division of Acute Care Surgery’s Associate Professor Kimberly Hendershot, M.D., recently attended the Association of American Medical College’s Mid-Career Women Faculty Professional Development seminar in Austin, Texas, Dec. 10-13, 2016.

John Christein, M.D.John Christein, M.D., was selected to be part of a new program from the ACS Division of Education., an associate professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, was recently selected to be part of a new program from the American College of Surgeons Division of Education.

The UAB Department of Surgery started UAB Women in Surgery to provide camaraderie and community for female surgeons and encourage female medical students to choose surgical specialties.

UAB Surgery is hosting a course in general surgery Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, through Saturday, Jan. 21, 2017, at the Westin Birmingham. The course will cover topics such as breast cancer surgery, benign GI surgery, malignant GI surgery, trauma and emergency general surgery. Guest lecturers will include Jon C. Gould, M.D., professor and chief of the Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin Division of General Surgery, and Timothy A. Pritts, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery and director of general surgery at the University of Cincinnati. 

Congratulations to Patrick Bosarge, M.D., Laura Stafman, M.D., and Jared White, M.D., who were recently elected to various Association for Academic Surgery committees. Bosarge will serve on the AAS Membership Committee, Stafman on the Leadership Committee and White on the Ethics Committee. View the missions and requirements for these three committees here.

James George, M.D., has received the 2017 Dean's Excellence in Mentorship Award.Cardiovascular Surgical Research Chair and Professor James George, Ph.D., was recently named a recipient of the 2017 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship. The Dean's Excellence in Mentorship Award recognizes full-time regular UAB faculty members who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments as mentors of graduate students and/or postdoctoral fellows. View the characteristics that make these award winners outstanding mentors, as well as eligibility information, here.

Associate Professor of Transplantation Jayme Locke, M.D., has been named a James IV Association of Surgeons Traveler for 2017-18. Locke is the director of the Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program, as well as the director of Transplant Analytics, Informatics & Quality.

Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., professor in the UAB Division of Pediatric Surgery, has been selected as one of 30 inspiring women for the 2016 Alabama Media Group's Women Who Shape the State award. This statewide program recognizes incredible women who are impacting Alabama through their efforts in communities, business, service organizations and philanthropies.

Breast surgical oncologist Helen Krontiras, M.D., has been named the new director of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Krontiras came to UAB as an assistant professor 15 years ago and now serves as a professor in the Department of Surgery. She earned her medical degree and completed her residency at UAB before completing a surgical breast fellowship at Northwestern University. Her official start date as division director was Nov. 16.

Britney Corey, M.D., was awarded a one-time $74,000 grant from the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation General Endowment Fund for her project, "Advancing a Formal Multidisciplinary Surgical Simulation Curriculum through High Fidelity Laparoscopic Simulation."

The participation at the recent American College of Surgeons meeting in Washington, D.C., was unprecedented. We were represented by five of our senior medical students pursuing careers in surgery and 14 residents who presented and participated in a wide variety of sessions throughout the week. We were honored to have 18 faculty members who led panels, moderated sessions, taught in the postgraduate course and participated in numerous meetings and leadership functions within the college.

While the scientific merit of romantic speed dating has yet to be examined, professional speed dating proved an interesting intellectual venture for the UAB departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering.

The Department of Surgery and the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) invite proposals for pilot and feasibility research studies that have high potential to generate essential preliminary data to support extramural grant applications. Basic science, translational and clinical research will be considered.

The American College of Surgeons' International Relations Committee invites faculty to apply for their traveling fellowships to Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Japan. The purpose of these fellowships is to encourage international exchange of information concerning surgical science, practice and education and to establish professional and academic collaborations and friendship.

Requirements and application forms are available here. The deadline for applications is Nov. 15.

• Read about 2016 Japan Traveling Fellow Dr. Daniel Anaya's experiences.
• Read about 2015 Japan Traveling Fellow Dr. Suresh Agarwal's experiences.
• Read about 2015 Germany Traveling Fellow Dr. Cristina Ferrone's experiences.

The Kim Ephgrave Visiting Professor Award program provides medical schools with the opportunity to request top women surgeons as speakers and receive funding from the AWS Foundation. Opportunities to lecture heighten the visibility of women surgeons while encouraging women medical students to pursue similar careers. The program was recently named in memory of Dr. Kim Ephgrave who served in the AWS Leadership from 1997 – 2002 and was AWS President from 2000 – 2001.

UAB will host Dr. Sharon L. Stein, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.A.S.C.R.S., associate professor at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine in Spring 2017. Dr. Stein is also the surgical director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at the Digestive Health Institute and the director of the Case Acute Intestinal Failure Unit. 

Students from the UAB School of Medicine have named 20 faculty and six clinical departments winners of the 2016 Argus Awards. Surgery was honored as the winner of the Birmingham Department (tied with Obstetrics & Gynecology), Huntsville Department (tied with Medicine) and Montgomery Department.

View all the winners of the Argus Awards here.

• Greg Kennedy, M.D., Ph.D., was named to the John H. Blue Endowed Chair of General Surgery, which was established in 2001.
• Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., is the first holder of the Charles D. McCrary Endowed Chair in Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Beierle is also the first female surgeon to be named to an endowed chair.

Pediatric surgeon Elizabeth Beierle, M.D., was selected as one of 2016 Women Who Shape the State by Al.com. More than 100 women were nominated and 29 women were selected for the second annual presentation of this award, which seeks to honor women throughout Alabama. From the UAB School of Medicine, Mona Fouad, M.D., was also honored. 

UAB Department of Surgery will host the Inaugural Frank G. Moody Lectureship on October 11, 2016, at 7am in Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium. Frank G. Moody, M.D., served as UAB’s first Division Director of Gastrointestinal Surgery from 1966-1971. This lectureship was created in memory of Dr. Moody, who passed away on August 12, 2016.

Providing faculty members from the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery the opportunity to meet and share research interests with the aim of finding collaborative opportunities. This event will include speed dating sessions where faculty members get a chance to briefly discuss their research interests with each other.